Career

President of science and technology for Bell Atlantic; president and CEO
of telecommunications company RSL USA; chief of the Federal Communications
Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology, 2002—.

Awards:
Named one of the 50 most influential people in long distance by
Phone Plus Magazine,
1998; included in
Forbes
magazine's E-Gang of luminaries in wireless communication, 2003.

Sidelights

Innovators trying to develop new, faster, easier ways for people and their
computers to communicate have a friend in government. Edmond J. Thomas,
engineering and technology chief for the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), is trying to clear away technical barriers and open more of the
broadcast airwaves to new technologies. He is a former executive for
telecommunications companies, so he is as far as possible from the
stereotype of the government regulator whose old rules get in the way of
fast-paced change. Thomas tries to throw the old rules out the window when
he can.

"I want to start creating places where American innovation can go
forward," Thomas told
Forbes
magazine's Scott Woolley. "[I'm] a techie
businessman in regulator's clothing." New-technology
companies love him for that, but older, established industries and
organizations are rising up in opposition to Thomas' efforts,
afraid his efforts might cause interference on the parts of the broadcast
spectrum they used to have to themselves.

His history in business is part of Thomas' appeal: he wants to
clear the way for new invention because he is an innovator himself.
Thomas, who has bachelor's and master's degrees from
Rensselaer Polytechnic University and a masters in business administration
from Pace University, holds several patents in data and voice
communications and developed the first telephony-based speech recognition
system. He spent 35 years at technology and telecommunications companies,
serving as president of science and technology for Bell Atlantic (now
Verizon), in charge of developing new products and services. In his last
job before joining the federal government, he was president and chief
executive officer of telecommunications company RSL USA. Under his
leadership, RSL USA grew five-fold in one year, to $500 million in
revenue, up from $120 million.

FCC chairman Michael K. Powell offered a clue about what he expected from
Thomas when he named him chief of the commission's Office of
Engineering
and Technology (OET) in January of 2002. Thomas, Powell said, would
prepare the OET "to take on sweeping, fast-paced changes that
characterize the industries we regulate ." Soon, it became clear
that Powell expected Thomas' office itself to make sweeping,
fast-paced changes. Powell and Thomas began rewriting FCC rules to open up
the airwaves.

In February of 2002, Thomas helped institute new rules on ultrawideband
technology. Ultrawideband spreads its low-power radio signals across many
frequencies, including a lot that are already being used. Cell phone
companies, airlines, and the military all protested to Thomas, but he
insisted that studies showed ultrawideband's pulsing signals were
so faint that they would not interfere with other signals. "The
reason we got it through is we had good science to back it," Thomas
told Woolley of
Forbes.
"I don't want to hurt the incumbents [those who were
already using a frequency] but I'm not going to accept subjective
arguments." In August of 2003, when Thomas took reporters on a rare
tour of the FCC's engineering lab, he was still promoting
ultrawideband. He showed off ultrawideband devices the FCC was testing,
including radar devices that can look into the ground, and he used a
global positioning system device right in front of one, to show that
ultrawideband did not cause any interference.

Thomas often argues that longtime users of the airwaves are overreacting,
protecting their turf, and ignoring evidence that new technology can share
their space on the broadcast spectrum without interference. For instance,
Thomas and the FCC also increased the amount of the spectrum available to
Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity technology, which gives computer users fast,
wireless Internet access in places such as cafes and airports. The new
frequencies were taken from the military and from unused parts of the
spectrum. By 2004, the FCC was moving to let wireless Internet services
take over unused television frequencies between Channels 5 and 51, and
Thomas was helping Powell justify the idea. When television broadcasters
complained that Wi-Fi could interfere with their signals, Thomas told the
Chicago Tribune
's Jon Van that smart Wi-Fi technology can sense other signals and
move to unused frequencies.

In June of 2004, the FCC cleared the way for another innovation: broadband
over power lines (BPL), which lets computer users access the Internet
through high-speed modems plugged into their electrical outlets. Some
observers say BPL could be a cheaper alternative than high-speed cable and
telephone Internet connections, especially in rural areas where cable TV
is not offered. Thomas raved about BPL's possibilities to the
Christian Science Monitor
's Brad Rosenberg, in the sort of speculation usually heard from
young, hopeful tech-geek visionaries, not regulators in their sixties.
"If every power plug in your house becomes a broadband connection,
that means that almost anything you plug into the wall can connect to the
Internet," he said. "That means that your refrigerator can
have a meaningful conversation with the supermarket and say, 'Hi, I
need milk.' Or you could call your house and say,
'I'm coming home in two hours, turn the air conditioner
on.' It's only restricted by imagination."

Amateur radio operators, also known as hams, said BPL interferes with
their signals, because power lines have less shielding than phone and
cable lines, so more signals spill out. They pointed to other countries
where BPL was rejected for interfering with existing signals. Thomas
insisted they did not have their facts straight. "What was banned
in Japan is very old technology," he told the
Christian Science Monitor
's Rosenberg.

While he fights those battles, Thomas is lending his office's
expertise to a much more literal war. He told Bloomberg.com's Neil
Roland that the FCC will help the Defense Department try to invent
technology to interfere with remote-controlled bombs in Iraq. Small bombs
detonated by cell phones or electrical charges are killing more United
States soldiers in Iraq than any other weapons, according to the Army. A
congressman asked Powell to get the FCC to help the military build a
device, to be placed on military vehicles, that could interfere with
signals between cell phones and bombs. Thomas says the FCC is willing to
try. "I certainly don't know how to design that device. But
people are looking into it to see what we can do," he told Roland.